You know when you do something that you think you are pretty good at and then you see someone else doing it a hundred times better? That is how we felt when we ordered a vegetarian pizza from a small ristorante on Sicily, a few years back. Mama mia, it was a taste sensation! And they had thrown at least 15 different vegetables on a small pizza slice. Ever since our visit, we have been working on improving our own pizza recipes.

Ingredients

Quantity

Ingredient

250ml

lukewarm water

2 teaspoons

fast-action dried yeast

2 teaspoons

sea salt

300g

light spelt flour

2 tablespoons

olive oil

Method

Pour the lukewarm water in a medium size bowl. Add the salt and yeast and stir around. Mix in 225 g of the flour. Gradually add the rest of the flour until the dough forms a ball. Knead a floured work surface for a couple of minutes, adding more flour if it sticks to your hands. Put the dough back in the bowl and rub with olive oil. Rub the dough until it’s completely covered in the oil. Cover the bowl with clingfilm and leave in a warm place for 1–2 hours to prove.

Preheat the oven to the highest possible temperature 240°C. Knead the dough with your hands on a lightly floured work surface. Divide it into 10 to 12 small portions. Stretch and flatten the dough until you get the desired size and thickness that you prefer and place on baking trays lined with baking paper. Spelt flour doesn’t stretch as easily as wheat flour but if you work carefully and flatten it with the palm of your hand you will get it right. Another trick is to roll them out directly on the baking paper with a lightly floured rolling pin and then just move the baking paper to the baking tray.

Add the topping of your choice, bake for about 10–15 minutes until golden around the edges.